Northern Indiana city boasts nation's best botanical garden
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Wellfield Botanic Gardens are half water. Photo: Arika Herron/Axios
I want to personally invite you all to my hometown to experience the nation's best botanical garden.
Why it matters: A 20-year-old garden in a small northern Indiana city — population roughly 50,000 — has felt like a well-kept secret to locals, but now it's getting recognized for punching way above its weight, beating out far larger and more widely known institutions across the country.
Driving the news: The Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart took the top honor in a survey by outdoor apparel brand KÜHL that evaluated 407 public gardens nationwide based on visitor review scores and sentiment analysis.
How it worked: The analysis combined star ratings with sentiment in actual comments to identify which places meet visitor expectations. To qualify for consideration, gardens were required to have at least 500 recent reviews.
- Wellfield earned an overall score of 95.9 out of 100, with a 4.79 average rating across and a 96.6% positive sentiment across more than 1,000 visitor reviews, which the analysis says reflects a sustained, meaningful pattern of visitor satisfaction.
Zoom in: Wellfield sits on 36 acres, half of which are water. Its two dozen themed gardens include an English cottage garden, a waterfall garden, a Japanese-style island garden and a children's garden.
- Originally known as the "North Main Street Well Field," the property has supplied hydraulic energy and drinking water to the City of Elkhart since the mid-1800s.
- The garden has a long-term lease agreement with the city, which still owns and operates 13 active wells on the site, supplying the majority of the community's drinking water.
💭 Arika's thought bubble: Just a few minutes from my parents' home, I've been visiting Wellfield for years, whether it was for a morning walk, the annual plant sale or its holiday light display.
- During my most recent visit, on a sunny Saturday morning with my mom, I hesitated about writing this story.
- Here we were in the country's best botanical garden, and it was so quiet.
- It wasn't empty, by any means. There was a yoga class in one area, a birdhouse-making class under a pavilion and a couple of young families playing with the water toys in the children's garden.
- But it was peaceful and nothing like an overcrowded tourist attraction. It felt like what it is — something built by and for the community. And that's something I don't want to spoil.
Yes, but: It's also a true gem, and more people should get to experience the beauty that so many in my hometown have worked so hard to create.
The bottom line: "Wellfield's top ranking shows that exceptional botanical experiences aren't limited to major metros," said Sarah Scott of KÜHL in a press release. "Small-town gardens can compete with the best."
- And it's well worth the 3-hour drive from Indianapolis.
If you go: 1011 N. Main St., Elkhart, Indiana.
- Open from 10am-6pm daily, April through October.
- Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 3-12 and free for children under 3.